Christian School Proposal Rejected

June 10, 1999|By JOSE DANTE PARRA HERRERA Staff Writer

MIRAMAR — For 12 years, Carmen Rivera dreamed of owning an elementary school.

But when she asked the city for permission to set up a Christian school in her home, her neighbors protested, saying it would add traffic to an intersection that had seen some serious accidents in the past.

The City Commission on June 2 voted 4-1 against the school, saying the addition of 75 to 100 students at the intersection of Southwest 67th Avenue and Miramar Parkway would be too much.

Rivera said she is seriously considering moving, because the city does not appreciate the contributions she is trying to make. She said she spent more than a year and $8,000 doing the paperwork necessary to demolish her pool and her garage so she could build an addition for the school.

"I pay high taxes for empty land that the city will not allow me to use. The only thing I can see is sell and leave," said Rivera, a resident of nine years.

Carlos Echazabal, 41, however, applauds the decision, saying the added traffic would only make the intersection more dangerous than it already is.

"It's basically a blind corner and [with the school], what they're going to hit is kids running around," said Echazabal, a 14-year resident.

The intersection is on a stretch of Miramar Parkway that curves right by City Hall. Neighbors say some motorists have died after taking the curve at high speeds and losing control of their vehicles.

Wazir Ishmael, the city' community development director, said his department talked with police officers and found the accident rate at the intersection was not as high as the neighbors think.

"Within the last eight years, [police] could only recall one accident," Ishmael said.

But former mayor Vicki Coceano, a member of the Planning and Zoning Board, remembers one night about eight years ago when a woman lost control of her vehicle as she entered the curve and died. Because of that, Coceano had blinking lights and a guardrail installed at the curve. Even with those precautions, she said, people still speed.

So when Rivera brought her proposal to the board, alarm bells went off, Coceano said.

"I'm certainly not going to look for an accident to happen again," Coceano said.

Rivera thinks the decision has to do more with politics than safety. She said when staff asked her to bring down the number of students from 100 to 75, she was willing to do so. But still the commission turned her down.

"There have been no fatalities, no injuries. Yet everything was political, hypothetical. The [other residents] kept asking: `what if? what if?' By the same token, what if not," Rivera said.

Jose Dante Parra Herrera can be reached at jparra@sun-sentinel.com or at 954-385-7907